If you haven't heard the news, postal rates are going up again:

It's time to stock up on Forever stamps.

The cost of mailing a letter will go up a penny-to 42 cents-on May 12.

But the Forever stamps will still be valid for first-class postage after that. And they can be bought for 41 cents until the new rates take place, postal officials said.

Yeah, better stock up while those Forever stamps cost 41 cents, because pretty soon they'll cost 42 cents. That means if you stock up now, you can put one over on the post office and save one whole dollar for every 100 letters you mail. If you really stock up, you can save $10.00 for every 1000 letters you mail. Oh how I love to save!

It's an easy story to say you should stock up on Forever stamps as if there is a big savings story there, but that's not the case, and it's not why the Forever stamps were created. The whole point of Forever stamps is that when postage rates go up, you can use the first-class stamps that you bought before the rate hike without worrying about buying a bunch of one-cent stamps to get you from 41 cents to 42 cents. That was a major hassle for post office customers and it cost the post office about as much to print all those one-cent stamps as it was making in profit from the rate hike.

So, no need to run out to get Forever stamps at the 41-cent rate. But rest assured that any Forever stamps you bought for 41 cents will still be totally acceptable even when it costs 42 cents to get new ones.